When the world shut down and public gatherings were brought to a complete halt – we turned to our screens to find hope and escape. But as bedrooms became offices and living rooms became playgrounds – we noticed that for many it wasn’t so easy to #wfh and almost impossible to work remotely.
Brought to light by Adore Me marketing manager Marie Lagadec, who was inspired by a story from the Brooklyn-based drag queen, Serena Tea whose only source of revenue was doing drag- we realized that with the closure of bars, theatres, and other public performance venues, many talented performers like Serena were now left with no income or outlet for creative expression.
So we thought, with a following of over 560,000 and a reach of over 10 million there had to be something that we could do to give these talented performers the spotlight they’ve been yearning for and simultaneously provide them with some financial respite.
That’s how Home Is Where The Art Is was born – an Adore Me initiative that leverages our social platforms to create a virtual stage for talented independent artists to create and distribute their content, and of course, be paid while doing so.
The idea was to help as many creatives as possible across various professions by asking them to create a short two minute video that we could share across our social channels. We did the math and realised that the best way to approach this would be to equate each virtual performance with roughly the same amount that the performer would normally receive for a performance/ gig. So we decided to pay each artist $300 and send them a $150 gift card too.
The goal was to make the process as simple and inclusive as possible – all we asked for was a raw file of the artist’s performance and our experienced editors would handle the rest. Although we suggested that the artists incorporate Adore Me products in the video, this was entirely up to them.
We’ve been blown away by the response so far and are thrilled to see how creatively our products and brand assets have been incorporated by the artists. Some have used them in songs, others in comedic sketches and the talented Daniele Greco even gave us a lesson in pottery by giving one of our products a ceramic life.
The best part of this whole process has been connecting with and cultivating the Adore Me community. We’ve been asking our followers to recommend artists that they would like us to commission and then reaching out to them- this has inevitably resulted in us being able to put out content that strongly resonates with the community.
Here is Erica showing us some easy to replicate yoga moves:
Meghan Tojne’s uplifting song that has now become the Adore Me anthem:
& Kelly Bachman showing us how not to take life too seriously:
But while the rest of world slowly resumes to some semblance of normalcy and we try to find peace with the ‘new normal’, public gatherings like concerts, performances and gigs continue to be the enemy in the fight against Covid-19. As we still try to maintain social distancing norms to flatten the curve and slow the spread of the virus, it is easy to lose sight of the real human stories behind statistics and headlines.
We hope that through Home Is Where The Art Is and other exciting initiatives we can continue to support these talented performers and give them a voice while they heal. We’re so excited to see how far we can take this and would love to hear from you- who should we commission next?
